Some bets are merely foolish, quite apart from the horses wagered on. One type of nonsensical hazard is the parlay, which involves betting two or more horses with one stake to win, to place or to show. If one of them fails to finish as stipulated the stake is lost, and I doubt if there is a horse-player in the United States so successful in picking single winners that he can justifiably try for two or three at once. The daily double on the first and second jaces at any track selling such tickets is the same thing as a two-horse straight parlay, except that the pay-off is computed on a different basis, and is merely a trap for sucker money. All contingent bets are productive of loss over a period of time. In wagers of this type a player puts some fixed amount unconditionally on horse A, and then stipulates that another fixed amount of winnings, if A performs as bet,’ shall go over on horse B. Reverse and back-to-back plays are if-money transactions not worth the trouble of definition. Round robins involve playing all possible par lays on three or more horses. The basic effort back of all these doubles, parlays and if-money bets is to multiply winnings of a small stake in the event of success, and the raw fact is that they will not work. Another type of foolish wager is a future-book bet. So far as I know, future books in this country are made only on the Kentucky Derby after the entries for the race close at the end of February. Operators of such books will lay a price against each of 150 to 250 entrants, but the wager is on a “play or pay” basis. Even though the horse does not start the wager is lost. No one can hope to make any money through this type of betting in view of the many hazards that may prevent a colt from getting to post or prohibit his reaching top condition.